Tennessee nurses and NKU's online programs

Both NKU copies agree on Tennessee. NKU's location rule for preceptors also means a Tennessee clinic cannot host an NKU student who lives across the line in Kentucky or Virginia. Every row is on our state authorization page.

A 2026 bill shows the direction of travel. SB 2013/HB 1905, titled the Nursing Education Integrity and Oversight Act, creates T.C.A. 63-7-501 through 63-7-506. For two years after it takes hold, Tennessee's nursing board is to set aside, unapproved, every application from a program headquartered in another state that wants to operate in Tennessee, enroll students there or place them in Tennessee clinicals. Every level is covered, from first-license programs to RN-to-BSN and APRN study.

Out-of-state programs approved earlier keep their standing, yet owe the Board and the state's Center for Nursing Advancement any figures either one asks for, down to preceptor names and placement numbers. The Center has until June 30, 2027 to propose fresh approval standards. The law takes effect when enacted; a secondary source puts that at April 27, 2026, but official enactment is unconfirmed. Today's Board rules (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1000-01) contain no express prior-approval requirement for out-of-state clinical placements.

On AANP's scale, Tennessee is restricted: NPs there work under a supervising physician, and both Schedule II through IV prescribing and opioid quantities are capped. Compact licensing reached Tennessee on January 19, 2018. The large systems are Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Ballad Health, Erlanger, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and Covenant Health, and the main metros are Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville and Memphis.

Kentucky is open to all NKU online programs, and Northern Kentucky, NKU's home turf, sits just seven miles from Cincinnati. Virginia and Georgia accept NP applicants; Virginia's MSN status differs between NKU's two table copies, and both states are closed for the RN-to-BSN. Arkansas and Mississippi admit NKU students to every non-NP program. Missouri, Alabama and North Carolina are not authorized for the MSN.

Kentucky, Virginia and Georgia are compact states, as is Tennessee, but a compact license is tied to where you live, so moving means getting that state's license. Confirm your target state on NKU's NP admission page first, and remember that NKU flags any change of residency as a possible risk to program status.

Planning a move north into Kentucky or east into Virginia? We turn that plan into a preceptor map. A placement advisor surveys practices for your NKU track around Louisville, Lexington or Northern Kentucky and times the search to NKU's 90-day recommendation. After the move, we carry the search through to a finished Medatrax request.